W. feels as if he's won a lot of hands and has a big pile of chips. He's confident enough to send two unilateralist hawks who specialize in blowing off the globe - John Bolton and Paul Wolfowitz - to run global institutions that epitomize multilateralism. (Wolfie's biggest qualification to run the World Bank? His prediction that Iraqi reconstruction would pay for itself with Iraqi oil revenues.)

Got it? Wolfowitz's specialty is blowing off the globe - notice how it's always the U.S.'s fault with the lefties - the lesson: be totally antagonistic, in the mode of France, and get praised by Maureen Dowd! What a prize...

Then there are the hysterical comparisons to the Soviet Union under communism:

Now the White House has its own gulag: C.I.A. agents snatch suspects and fly them to places like Egypt and Syria to be strung up in chains and tortured. And The Times reported yesterday that at least 26 deaths of prisoners in American custody in Iraq and Afghanistan may be criminal homicides. So it also has its own Soviet-style propaganda campaign.

You remember, of course, the many times that the Soviets put their lives and fortune on the line for the cause of freedom, right? You don't?...that's funny, neither do I. Of all the tiresome 'progressive' ticks, none is more so than this habit of equating political enemies with brutal tyrants (let's see: 26 possible deaths in custody versus 50 million killed by Stalin; sounds about right - good job, Maureen!). Cheapening the horrors of Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany to score meaningless political points is morally repugnant, but that's our MoDo, never willing to allow scruples to interfere with her agenda of relentless mockery. What a talentless hack...

UPDATE 01/17/2005 1:09 pm central: 50 million may be putting it a bit strong for Stalin's death toll (then again...), but even the lowest estimates put 20 million on his head. In any event, the magnitude truly is incomprehensible...